Originally Posted by
Phil_gretz
Game changer to me means something that gives a distinct advantage over the "old way" of doing something. A competitive advantage in sports. An efficiency leap in accomplishing some task.
Apropos of nothing, just want to blather... Back in college lo some 20 years ago I used to fly model sailplanes. Hand Launch Glider was my favorite event, the wingspan limit was a tiny 59" or 1.5M depending on continent, and lots of them were smaller. They were made of balsa sticks and heat shrink plastic, and thrown javelin style. Someone came up with the idea of gripping the wing tip, and then shortly after that putting a peg through the wing spar near the wing tip, and throwing them discus style. Really more hammer-toss, but discus is the name that stuck. This about doubled the launch height overnight and also allowed the plane to be caught and re-launched in a second, which is important for some timed events. The two enabling technologies were carbon fiber wing spars (for the strength) and computer radios (to have multiple trim settings), both of which had already been around for 10+ years but never combined in this way for this event. Free flight hand launch gliders are much smaller, like 20-24" wing span, and still launched like darts, and that is
very ripe for the same revolution.
(not my photo, found on internet)